WASHINGTON — Patients who are looking around for the least expensive options for a hospital visit in Maryland have a new online tool that makes the search more convenient.
Wearthecost.org, which went live Thursday, lets patients scroll through various hospitals, seeing how much, on average, a particular procedure costs at each facility.
The site was set up by the Maryland Health Care Commission, an independent regulatory agency.
“We combine the cost of services but also give an indication of where there may be variations in quality,” said Ben Steffen, executive director of the commission. “We encourage residents of the D.C., Maryland and Virginia areas to visit.”
Currently, the website allows patients to search through cost options for just four common procedures.
They include hip replacement, knee replacement, vaginal child birth and hysterectomy.
“Typically patients that need these services have a little bit of time to consider what their alternatives are before they seek care,” Steffen said.
In the near future, the commission plans to add more procedures and will also include Medicare and Medicaid services.
Right now, the site is set up for those who are privately insured.
“This is an important starting point,” said Steffen. “We do plan on increasing the scope of services.”
On the website, the commission wrote that it hopes the new service will help patients understand the differences in cost and quality so they can make the best decisions.
“While there’s no silver bullet to fixing our health care system, and reducing the high cost of care, we know that price transparency is part of the solution,” the commission wrote. “For example, our site will tell you what it costs to get a knee replacement at a hospital on the Eastern Shore.”
Steffen said conversations involving money are absent far too often between doctors and patients.
“When we visit our caregivers, we feel a little reluctant to talk about cost,” he said. “We need to break through that barrier.”
The “Wear the Cost” effort comes at a time when health care costs and patient care are under a new national spotlight.
The Trump administration has worked to defund some aspects of the Affordable Care Act. And Congress continues to fight over a solution to the American health care system.
